Skolkovo Foundation and Cybernaut Investment Group have signed a cooperation agreement under the auspices of the Russian-Chinese forum “Big opportunities for small- and medium-sized enterprises,” taking place in Beijing on April 21-22. The document was signed by Vasily Belov, Senior VP for Innovations at the Skolkovo Foundation, and Du Hao, Managing Partner of Cybernaut Investment Group.

The 1,500 sq. m. R&D business incubator will be situated at the Skolkovo Innovation Center and house at least 15 Skolkovo resident companies that are conducting research into IT and robotics, space, energy-efficiency technologies and new materials.

Cybernaut’s robotics center, which will be created in China with the help of Skolkovo’s Robotics Center, will implement a joint acceleration program for Skolkovo resident companies to ease them into the Chinese market.

Arkady Dvorkovich, Deputy Prime-Minister of Russia:

“The signing of the agreement between the Skolkovo Foundation and Cybernaut Investment Group is an important step in the development of Russian-Chinese cooperation in the area of innovations. In recent years China made a great breakthrough in the development of high-tech, created large technoparks. China gained extensive experience of implementing innovative technologies in the industry, successfully developed its own high-tech, created high-tech corporations, a few of which became world famous brands. Russia, for its part, always excelled in scientific research. We have serious know-how in the area of nuclear, space and information technologies. I am certain, that by uniting efforts Russia and China can reach substantial success in the development of innovations and thereby make a significant contribution into the economic development of our countries”.

Additionally, a $200 million Russian-Chinese venture fund will invest in Skolkovo resident companies that specialize in IT and robotics and also in space and telecommunication technologies.

The Skolkovo-Cybernaut agreement comes into force in the third quarter of 2015.